Tobacco, kinnick kinnick, or other herbs are typically smoked by burning and inhaling the combustion fumes and smoke. In recent years, interest has grown in the technique of vaporization in which the smoking material is carefully heated so that the desired flavor and psychoactive components are liberated, and combustion is minimized.
Vaporization provides many benefits over smoking. When performed properly, vaporization does not produce nearly as much toxic and carcinogenic pyrolytic products as smoking. Also, vaporization is smoother and more flavorful, and lacks a burned taste that many find disagreeable. Further, vaporization allows more efficient use of smoking materials, since desired flavor and psychoactive compounds are not destroyed by combustion.
However, vaporization is difficult to perform, since vaporization only occurs in a relatively narrow temperature range. If the temperature is too low, desired compounds are not volatilized and nothing is inhaled; if the temperature is too high, combustion will occur, with its ill effects. For most smoking materials, vaporization is optimal in a temperature range of about 300-400 degrees Fahrenheit. The optimal temperature depends upon the compounds being vaporized.
Most vaporizers in use today are electrically powered. For vaporizing plant materials such as tobacco or essential oils, a temperature-controlled heat gun is often used. Electrical vaporization devices are inconvenient to use since they are not portable and require electrical line power. Typically, heat guns require several hundred watts of power. Also, electrical vaporization devices tend to be expensive.
Some vaporizer devices employ a burning carbonaceous fuel element as a heat source. These devices are best suited for use in cigarettes since the carbonaceous fuel element burns for several minutes. However, a continuously burning fuel element is not desired for vaporizing some materials. Exemplary vaporizer devices in the prior art are listed below:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,032 describes a smoking device using a fuel element.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,993,748 describes a vaporization device that is electrically powered.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,369 describes a vaporization device that is electrically powered.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,301 describes a vaporizer attachment for a pipe so that the pipe can be coupled to an electric heat gun.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,083 describes a vaporizer that is electrically powered.
It would be an advance in the art of vaporization devices to provide a vaporizer that operates without electrical power, is inexpensive, is easily transportable, is small, and is simple to operate. Such a device could be widely used by tobacco smokers and by users of medicinal herbs (e.g. mullein, kinnick kinnick) and essential oils. Such a device would also largely avoid the harmful effects of inhaling toxic pyrolytic compounds found in smoke and provide the other benefits of vaporization.